Hunting Eyes
by SamCyberCat
Summary: He wasn’t sure why it happened but he knew now that the last thing you ever wanted to do was to lock eyes with a hunter. Drabble fic. MisawaxRyo [BastionxZane].


Author's Note - One of my friends, Seda, told me that bad fanfiction ruined the Ryo/Misawa pairing for her. So I suggested writing the pairing to see if it'd make her like it more. If this pairing isn't your taste then I can't say this story will do anything for you but I gave it a try. 

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When it comes down to it a person's mind is the most basic essential they have to push themselves forward in life. The smarter someone is the further they can go. So others should regard intelligence as a good trait.

However this was not always the case. Particularly not in a classroom situation. Intelligence often caused jealousy from one student to another. Which resulted in the said intelligent students being socially excluded and labelled as 'nerds' or 'geeks' or other such names.

This in itself didn't particularly bother Misawa. He had received that kind of treatment for his genius since he was a child and was more than used to it. He understood that others felt threatened by it.

…So why then did others not feel threatened by Ryo Marufuji?

The academy's other genius, as it were. He was seen as being extremely cool in the eyes of the students. They all idolised and looked up to the top ranking Obelisk Blue student. He wasn't called a nerd.

Misawa knew he was only a Ra Yellow student but this was by his own choice. He was more than qualified to be a Blue student but wouldn't accept the highest rank until he could defeat his rival Juudai.

And there was the second issue - Ryo had already beaten Juudai. And everyone knew it.

The third issue was studying. Misawa spent all his time either in the library or on his computer. The walls of his room were filled with various algebraic formulas he had created.

Whereas Ryo was never seen studying. Surely he must study at sometimes to be so smart but whenever anyone saw him he was mostly standing by the lighthouse staring out to the ocean.

So that was it. Ryo was idolised for his intelligence, had defeated Juudai and didn't seem to study. While Misawa was regarded as a nerd, had yet to defeat Juudai even after months of analysing his deck and spent his whole life striving to achieve the grades that he did.

This did not mean he was jealous of Ryo. Of course not. Misawa did not do jealousy. Not even a little bit. Really.

But all the same he couldn't help thinking about it. He'd tried analysing it more than once. If it wasn't for the whole defeating Juudai issue he would have put Ryo's appeal down to being good looking and slim but there had to be more that that…

There was a call from a disgruntled cleaner saying the lecture hall would become off limits in ten minutes. This shook Misawa out of his thoughts. He had stayed behind to do some extra studying, which wasn't uncommon for him, but he didn't want to prevent the cleaner from his work.

Absentmindedly he began putting his books into a bag so he could carry them back to his dorm. Once this was done he turned to leave the hall.

That was when he saw Ryo. The person he'd just been thinking about. Sitting at a desk towards the back of the lecture hall deeply engrossed in reading a book.

This was unusual. While Ryo was the top student Misawa had never known him to stay behind in the lecture hall before. He'd been so quiet that if Misawa hadn't turned around he wouldn't have even noticed Ryo was there…

Just don't pay attention to him, Misawa's mind reasoned. Its not like he can read your mind so he wouldn't know you were thinking jealously about him. Just keep walking and don't make eye contact.

However, 'just keep walking and don't make eye contact' turned into 'stare at him as you walk up the aisle' before Misawa had realised. Not that it made much difference. Ryo was so into reading his book that he didn't seem to notice he was being watched.

Misawa had to walk past him to get to the door anyway. He half-thought that Ryo hadn't heard the cleaner so decided to speak as he drew level.

"We've got to be out of here in ten minutes," he said.

No response.

He didn't know if it was out of rudeness or that he just hadn't heard so he cleared his throat and tried again, "I said, we've got to be out of here in-"

Ryo rose slowly out of the chair before Misawa could finish, causing the Ra Yellow student to fall into silence.

He could tell he had Ryo's attention now. Although he wished that he hadn't. The way those eyes were watching him was nothing short of creepy.

Misawa hadn't looked Ryo in the eyes before, and not doing so had probably been a good idea. There was something unnatural in them. They weren't a particularly striking tone of blue but they made you feel so empty. Like you were being observed by two voids that were looking for something they would probably never find. Misawa thought that these were the eyes of a hunter.

He was locked into the gaze and didn't have time to react as Ryo moved sharply forward to grab him. He lost contact with those harsh eyes as he was pinned to the desk Ryo had been sitting at.

It had happened in a second. There had been no noise at all. Misawa partially wondered what might happen to him in the remaining minutes before the cleaner returned when he remembered that he had a voice. He opened his mouth to call for assistance but didn't manage Ryo's hand had covered his mouth.

The older student was standing over him now, his other hand holding Misawa's arm down to the desk. There was a pause, for a second that seemed like an eternity. And those eyes were watching him again. Those eyes did seem to contain an eternity.

And Ryo moved closer to him. He took his hand away from Misawa's mouth but Misawa did not speak anyway. At the moment he was curious to see what Ryo was doing and this kept him quiet.

Those strange eyes were now far too close as Ryo pressed his lips against Misawa's. They were watching all the while. Misawa had not looked into romantic gestures much but he knew at least when kissing someone you were supposed to close your eyes. It seemed more sincere that way. But these eyes did not close. They were not sincere. They were rude and intrusive. They willed to continue their hunt but Misawa was now determined to stare them down.

At this point Ryo loosened his grip on Misawa's arm. Misawa hadn't noticed before but the grip had been digging into him and there was a jolt of pain as it was removed.

The jolt was all that was needed to bring Misawa back to his senses. He did not want to be here with this strange boy and those strange eyes. He quickly shoved Ryo off him and grabbed hold of his bag before running out of the door.

He didn't look back because he didn't want to see those eyes watching him go, as he knew they would be. And he didn't stop running until he's reached the boys' bathroom, where he made a sharp turn into and slammed the door behind him. He slumped down against the door trying to catch his breath.

What in the world had happened back there? He'd told Ryo that they had to leave soon and then Ryo… started kissing him? Where was the sense in that?

He shook his head trying to stop thinking about it but the image of that face looking down on him seemed to be stuck in his mind.

Whatever anyone else said about Ryo Misawa now found him creepy. The way he stared at him, that he hadn't said a word the whole time. What kind of…

Before he could finish suddenly Misawa knew exactly what kind of person acted like that. For he realised that to see Ryo was watching him during the kiss he too must have had his eyes open. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't really taken his eyes off Ryo the whole time. Who was he to say that his own eyes didn't have the same searching stare that Ryo's did?

And the silence. There had been two people in that room. Either one of them could have made a noise but he chose not to. In retrospect he could have easily shouted through the hand covering his mouth if he wanted to but through his own fascination he hadn't.

Perhaps Ryo was a lot less alien to him than he'd first thought. Though this was not comforting. He held his head in his hands and stayed there until the last of the lights were shut off from the academy and he was sure the cleaner had left. It wasn't until then that he made his way out of the building and back towards the Yellow Dorm.

As he did he past the lighthouse. He couldn't believe what he saw. Ryo was actually there. After what had happened so freshly in his mind Ryo had the nerve to stand at the lighthouse as if it was just another night. As if nothing had happened.

He stopped and watched for a moment but Ryo did not look back. At this time those eyes belonged to the ocean. And that was when Misawa realised – those eyes were definitely looking for something. And they were looking for whatever it was all the time. And that's why Ryo stared at the ocean, because it was the only way he could stop his eyes from hunting. Somehow he just knew that he was not what those eyes had been hunting for. Because if he had been Ryo would not have let him go so easily.

He still couldn't explain exactly why what had happened in the lecture hall happened. Perhaps if Ryo had also realised the unspoken similarities between the two of them he was searching within a kindred spirit, but this seemed unlikely. But for whatever reason it had happened Misawa left feeling a lot more comfortable that he was not the one being hunted.


End file.
